grisly
/ˈɡɹɪzli/
"grisly" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“grisly” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #39,834 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #39,834
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 13
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | grisly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɡɹɪzli/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #39,834 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 13 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “grisly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for grisly is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡɹɪzli/. Corpus data places it at rank #39,834 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for grisly, with forms such as "ggrisly", "girsly", and "grilsy". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "grist", "gritty", "grossly", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English grisely, grysly, grissliȝ, griselich, grislich, from Old English grisliċ (“grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid”), from grīsan (“to shudder with horror; to tremble, to be terrified; to make tremble, to terrify; to agrise, grise”) (unattest… The correct English form is grisly, spelled G-R-I-S-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.
- 2Obsolete form of grizzly.
- 3Misspelling of gristly.
Etymology
From Middle English grisely, grysly, grissliȝ, griselich, grislich, from Old English grisliċ (“grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid”), from grīsan (“to shudder with horror; to tremble, to be terrified; to make tremble, to terrify; to agrise, grise”) (unattested but implied in āgrīsan) + -lic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’). The word may also be an aphetic form of Old English ongrislic, agrisenliċ, the past participle of agrīsan (“to agrise”). Compare Danish grusom, Swedish gräslig, Middle Dutch grezelijc (modern Dutch griezelig), Middle High German grisenlich (modern German grässlich, grausen).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ggrisly,girsly,grilsy,grislly,grislyy,grissly,grisyl,grrisly,grsily,rgisly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of grisly - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "grisly"?
What does "grisly" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "grisly"?
How do you pronounce "grisly"?
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Using “grisly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-R-I-S-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡɹɪzli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “grist” - see the side-by-side comparison. grisly vs grist
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.